Between now and the year 2020, the population of San Diego County will grow by 1 million people, traffic congestion will increase, and hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent improving freeways and mass transit systems.

Mass transit currently fulfills about 3 percent of our ground transportation needs. The car is used for the remaining 97 percent. Why? Because mass transit is not convenient when a train, trolley or bus does not stop within a reasonable distance of our residence or place of employment. Mass transit takes too long when it is perceived that the travel time is longer than the same trip by car.

Make mass transit convenient, safe, competitive and timely, and more people will use it.

We must provide more frequent and rapid mass transit service along primary transportation corridors. The proposed Bus Rapid Transit system for Interstate 15 should be an excellent strategy to accomplish this objective between Escondido and San Diego.

High-capacity, fast, frequent mass transit will be a necessity along each of the county's primary transportation routes. Connecting nodes, or activity centers, will be needed to permit ready transfers north, south, east and west, and should be located at intersections near high-density residential areas, major employers, universities, city and county offices, military facilities, tourist attractions and other modes of travel, such as the airport or train station.

The transit system needs to provide capacity at a headway frequency of 10 to 12 minutes. The system should operate 12 to 14 hours per day in all directions, with quick, convenient and inexpensive transfers from one corridor and mode of travel to another. The goal should be less than a 10-minute wait at a transfer station, followed by a relatively quick transfer down the line and easy, quick transfers to cross routes. The system should become time-competitive with the car for peak hour commutes.

It should provide transfer stations where each route intersects. Each station would become people oriented, a place to wait from one route to another. Commuters would tolerate transfers, a short wait and both reasonable amenities and weather protection.

The system could accelerate "smart growth" and transit-oriented development concepts. Private property could be rezoned for high-density business, commercial and retail employment centers adjacent to the transfer stations. Employment centers should radiate outward from the transfer stations, within reasonable walking distances in all directions. At the same time, employment centers should be decentralized to corridors throughout the county.

Concentric private property could be rezoned around each employment zone for high-density residential use. People residing in these residential areas should be able to walk to the employment center or transfer station. The county and each of the 18 cities need to coordinate their future land use planning decisions with a regional mass transit transportation plan.

It should create a "feeder" bus (shuttle) system, serving neighborhoods beyond the business and high-density residential zones, to provide connecting public transit service for commuters from the suburban areas. Each shuttle route (of perhaps just two or three small buses each) would serve a single neighborhood, conveying children to school, homemakers to the local store and commuters to the employment centers and transfer stations. The shuttle routes would loop a neighborhood and provide service to within three blocks of each residence.

If a transit system became accessible and convenient, people would get out of their cars. Adding a similar shuttle system through and around each employment district would encourage transfers to places of employment.

Funding is the Achilles' heel of mass transit. Local, state and federal funding would be required for both capital and operating expenses. The region should lobby for employer subsidies, and to have a larger percentage of local, state and federal gasoline and transportation tax money allocated to mass transit operations, new buses, new trolley and train sets and driver/engineer salaries. Increased operational funding would be required for the level of service necessary if the commuting public is to be persuaded to get out of their cars.

Establish a reliable, quick, convenient, and comfortable system with appropriate shuttles at both ends of the route, and mass transit could become a preferred option to the automobile. Use a larger percentage of tax revenues for mass transit operations and the fare box will be price competitive. Commuters would then increasingly make use of the service to save time, hassle, wear and tear on their automobiles and nerves, $2-plus-per-gallon gasoline and parking expenses.

It isn’t just the public that needs to rethink its love affair with the automobile; government also needs to re-think its continuing expansion of the freeway system. We must provide incentives to mass transit that are comparable to those our freeways have historically enjoyed. As our crowded freeways increasingly demonstrate, we can no longer rely entirely upon subsidized freeway systems to stay abreast of our increasing congestion.

Peter Pountney is president of Pountney & Associates Inc., a civil engineering consulting and land surveying firm. He was the project manager for the design of the Escondido Transit Center, the Pedley Metrolink Commuter Rail Station in Riverside County and the Encinitas Coaster Commuter Rail Station. He is designing the Van Buren Metrolink Station for the Riverside County Transportation Commission.